Dabbawalla

Dabbawalla

What is a Dabbawalla?

Dabawala means, in Marathi language, person who carries a food tiffin.

Dabawala is a person in Mumbai, INDIA, that collects freshly cooked food in food tiffin from the houses of the workers delivering it to their respective workplaces and returning back the empty tiffin using different types of transport. They use not fuel at all; walking, bicycle and train are the transportation.

They wear a white Gandhi cap (see photo).

There are in Mumbai 5000 semi-literate Dabawalas that every single day deliver daily homemade food to 200000 people within a radius of 60 kms. in just 3 hours. Carrying 200000 tiffin(dabas) per day, that makes 400000 transactions every single day.

Why amazing?

Three main points

1. A Dawabala charges Rs.200 (almost $5) monthly per customer, irrespective of distance, weight or space.
Home made food cost around Rs. 8. That is around Rs. 176 a month. That makes total cost of Rs. 376 ($8) a month for having home-made food everyday. Healthier and cheaper than any fast food chain or any eatery there.
Guaranteed, they have an error in deliveries of one in 16.000.000 deliveries. Never!

2. They don’t pollute, because they don’t use any fuel; just train, walking, pushing cartage or riding a bicycle.
Pleas take into account Mumbai’s traffic! Chaos; a few traffic lights, millions of people walking around on the streets (no side walk), thousands of cars, no rule on traffic and even though all this the transactions are made properly in time and in quality.

Zero pollution
Zero Fuel
Zero Disputes
Zero modern Technology
Zero Investment
100% Customer Satisfaction
99.99999% Performance

3. The logistic system is other the main points, everyday 400000 transactions are made, no computer system, no GPS, no software involved. Low cost and, zero pollution and an effectiveness never seen before.

How works?

This service was originated in 1880. In 1890, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche, started a lunch delivery service with about 100 men. In 1930, he informally attempted to unionize the dabawalas. Later a charitable trust was registered in 1956 under the name of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust. The commercial arm of this trust was registered in 1968 as Mumbai Tiffin Box Carriers Association.

As mentioned above, there are 5000 Dabawala in Mumbai city.

They are organized in groups of 25-30 Dabawalas with a leader called Mukadam.
The Mukadam responsibilities are: namely, sorting out the tiffin at the hub, maintaining a record of payments, arranging substitutes for absent Dabawalas, settling disputes, scouting for new customers and ensuring customer satisfaction.
The Mukadam and his group are supposed to generate their own revenue and manage day to day functioning.

The 120 groups of Dabawalas are independent among them; however they share information in new clients, knowing the geography of operational areas, etc.

Each Dawabala earns approx. Rs 5000-6000 a month. Thought each has about 25 to 30 customers.
Our turnover is INR 50 crores (500 million ruppes) every dabawalas is a shareholder in our Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Supliers Charity Trust.

No alcohol during work hours and carry identity cards. Punctuality is a necessity. No Dabawala is allowed to undercut or outsmart his colleague.

Daily journey of a dabawalas

8:30 a.m. Dabawala arrives to the client home, picks up the daba(can) and moves on, there is no interaction with any member of the clients household.

After the dabawala place all the tiffin on the bicycle or pushcart.

9:20 a.m. With the bicycle full of tiffin he goes to the suburban railway station.

9:30 a.m. The sorting operation begins with dabas (tiffin) sorted according to destinations and placed in cartages that are specific to each destination. The cartages come in two standard sizes, accommodating 24 and 48 dabas (tiffin) each.

9:41 a.m. The train arrives and the cartages are placed in a special compartment next to the driver’s cabin.

10:21 a.m. Train arrives to one of the major hubs. The cartages are unloaded and bundled with those arriving from other collection centers. They are re-sorted according to destinations.

110:5 a.m. Cartages are located into the suburban train for onward journey to the final destination terminals.

11:45 a.m. The suburban train reaches the terminal station. Dabas (tiffin) are re-sorted, now according to specific delivery routes.

12:10 p.m. Dabas are placed in destination-specific cartages and hitched, typically on to bicycles or pushcarts for delivery to individual clients.

12:30 p.m. The daba is delivered at the doorstep of the clients workplace.

The delivery process is reversed in the afternoon. The empty daba is picked up between 1:15 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. for its return to the client’s home early that evening.

So as you can see there is an outstanding logistical system, in which each Dabawala needs the group to perform well.

This works becouse of the Indian low labor wages?
Do we need to re-think the way we manage our business?

Mano